Saturday, September 26, 2015

Fresh for your weekend browsing - our weekly round-up of favorite links to other websites, blogs, articles, and images via Twitter.
• Vintage decorative and fashion ideas: Wright's bias fold tape sewing books, 1931.
• Artist John Singer Sargent and his people.
• In colonial New England, women were forced to confess to fornication outside of marriage, and fined for it.
• What 200 years of African American cookbooks reveal how we stereotype food.
• Martha Washington's essential encampment tool kit.
• The belated pardoning of Salem Witch Trial victim Ann Pudeator.
• Image: Stowaway cats escape capture and sail to Europe, 1930.
• Jane Austen and the art of letter-writing.
• At the Pearlies' Harvest Festival in London.
• The persevering lover and the false wife, 1786.
• This official war artist drew stunning portraits of RAF pilots during World War Two.
• Newly rediscovered early modern Maryland ship was likely built on a plantation by slaves or indentured servants.
• Image: Mark Twain in Instanbul, 1867.
• Quick quiz: which character from Thomas Hardy's novels are you?
• Good overview of 19thc. theatre in London.
• The history of the Stamp Act shows how Native Americans led to the American Revolution.
• Rare video footage of artists Monet, Rodin, Renoir, and Degas.
• Image: "Wide-Awake" was once a common compliment for boys and men, as this dime-novel proves.
• Alexander Cruden, from Corrector of texts to Corrector of people.
• Why have Indian British suffragettes been erased from popular history?
• Do you adore Dior? How a fashion late bloomer changed the game in 1947 with his New Look.
• Bits of medieval France are incorporated in the Joan of Arc statue in NYC.
• Image: In case you missed National Punctuation Day this week, here's a 15thc. manuscript with early pilcrows (paragraph marks.)
• A brief history of London tourism since 1800.
• A marooning scandal in the Royal Navy, 1807.
• We're still trying to figure out what made this poor cat a "badly marked tabby" in 1895.
• Just for fun: modern art simplified.Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.Above: At Breakfast by Laurits Andersen Ring. Private collection.

Share This

A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.